AMRAAM. The Air Force awarded Raytheon a $768 million contract to produce AMRAAM missiles and associated spares, hardware and training systems for 22 FMS customers. Work for the Lot 33 contract will be performed in Tucson, Arizona, and is expected to be completed in early 2023. FMS customers involved include Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Indonesia, Japan, Kuwait, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Oman, Poland, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, Turkey and United Kingdom.

KC-46s to Travis. The Air Force awarded Walsh Federal LLC a $123.6 million firm-fixed-price contract to contract a three-bay maintenance hangar at Travis AFB, California in anticipation of new KC-46A aircraft arriving on base in the next few years. The contract, awarded Dec. 30, includes five unexercised options and two planned modifications which, if exercised, would boost the contract value to $124.4 million. Work will be performed in Fairfield, California, and is expected to be completed by June 2022. FY ’18 Air Force milcon contract funds are obligated on this award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Naval Facilities Engineering Command, the contracting activity, received two proposals for the project.

Iranian Cyber Response? In the wake of the U.S. killing of Iranian Commander Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike last Friday in Iraq, the cyber security firm FireEye warns of likely increase in activity by Iranian cyber threat actors. “We will probably see an uptick in espionage, primarily focused on government systems, as Iranian actors seek to gather intelligence and better understand the dynamic geopolitical environment,” John Hultquist, director of Intelligence Analysis for FireEye, says in a statement emailed to media. “We also anticipate disruptive and destructive cyberattacks against the private sphere.” Prior to former President Barack Obama’s 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, Hultquist says “Iran carried out such attacks against the US financial sector as well as other businesses and probed other critical infrastructure” but after the agreement limited this activity to the Middle East.

Acquisition Completed. Curtiss-Wright Corp. completed its $132 million acquisition of 901D Holdings, increasing the company’s footprint on Navy shipbuilding programs and its product portfolio for instrumentation and controls systems. 901D provides ruggedized shipboard enclosures and electronic subsystems to the Navy.

New Counterterrorism Bill. A bipartisan bill introduced in the Senate last week would create a federal commission to examine current interagency information sharing for all terrorist threats in the U.S. and the terrorist threat information sharing landscape among all levels of government and how different types of terrorism affect information sharing. The Interagency United States-Based Terrorism Threat Information Sharing Commission would look at domestic and internationally inspired terrorism and seek input from state and local law enforcement, according to Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.)., a member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Hassan co-authored the bill with Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), the committee chairman. The commission will be established by the Director of National Intelligence in coordination with Secretary of Homeland Security, Attorney General, and FBI Director.

PAC-3 FMS. Lockheed Martin has received a $114 million deal to to accelerate the delivery of Advanced PAC-3 missiles for the United Arab Emirates’ Patriot air and missile defense systems. The Pentagon announced foreign military sale contract modification on Dec. 30. Deliveries under the deal are expected to be completed by the end of 2024. The FMS with UAE also includes ground support equipment and initial spare parts.

AMDR LRIP. The Navy awarded Raytheon a $250 million modification to exercise options to produce two Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR) program Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP) units. This Dec. 20 AMDR award is for units to be deployed on DDG-51 Flight III class destroyers. Work will occur in Marlborough, Mass., and is expected to be finished by June 2023. The full mod amount was obligated at award time and will not expire at the end of this fiscal year.

GMD Comms. The Missile Defense Agency awarded Boeing a $265 million modification to the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) development and sustainment contract for communications upgrades. The Dec. 27 contract will specifically have Boeing support the GMD Communications Network Modernization, the in-flight interceptor communications system data terminals technology upgrade, and complete the GMD fire control communication ground systems software build 8 early integration. This award includes options that, if exercised, would increase the overall GMD development and sustainment contract from $10.94 billion to $11.21 billion. This work will be done by an industry team of Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and L3Harris with a performance period lasting through Dec. 31, 2022. This award was executed on a sole-source basis under U.S. Code and Federal Acquisition Regulations.

CG-47. The U.S. Navy awarded Huntington Ingalls Industries a $110 million contract for Ticonderoga-class (CG-47) integrated planning yard services on Dec. 20. The company will provide expert design, planning and material support services for maintenance and modernization of this ship class. Work will occur in Pascagoula, Miss., and is expected to be finished by December 2024. The contract includes options that, if exercised, would raise the total value to $453 million. This contract was not competitively procured in accordance with acquisition regulations with only one responsible source.

CG-29 MODPRD. The Navy awarded BAE Systems a $175 million contract on Jan. 2 to execute USS Vicksburg (CG-69) fiscal year 2020 modernization period (MODPRD) work. This work availability will cover maintenance, modernization, and the repair of CG-69 in a Chief of Naval Operations-scheduled MODPRD. The contract notice said this is a “long-term” availability that was solicited on an East/Gulf coast-wide basis without limiting the work to the cruiser’s homeport. Under this award, BAE will provide facilities and human resources capable of completing, coordinating, and integrating multiple areas of ship maintenance, repair and modernization for the Vicksburg.  Work will occur in Norfolk., Va., and is expected to be finished by March 2021. The full contract value was obligated at award time and $134 million of it will expire at the end of this fiscal year. Although the announcement said the contract was competitively procured, DoD only received one offer.

LSD-49. The Navy awarded General Dynamics National Steel and Shipbuilding Co. (NASSCO) a $98 million firm-fixed-price contract for fiscal year 2020 docking phased maintenance availability work on the USS Harpers Ferry (LSD-49) landing ship dock in San Diego. This Jan. 2 contract work aims to maintain, modernize and repair LSD-49.  This is a “long-term” availability and was solicited on a West Coast-wide basis. Under this award, NASSCO will provide facilities and personnel capable of completing, coordinating, and integrating multiple areas of ship maintenance, repair, and modernization for LSD-49. The contract includes options that, if exercised, will raise the value to $119 million. The work is expected to be finished by December 2020.